Rose of Versailles gets USA release!
In one of the biggest licensing announcements in a very long time, RightStuf has announced the licensing and acquisition of Rose of Versailles. The 40-episode saga will be published on DVD on 2013 through the label Nozomi Entertainment. This is a major coup since this franchise has never seen the light of day in the United States.
Rose of Versailles is based off of the revolutionary 1972 manga by Ryoko Ikeda. The manga and the anime that was influenced by it follows the story of a fictional knight known as Oscar on the court of Marie Antoinette in the Versailles royal court before and during the French Revolution. The shojo was revolutionary since it had a strong focus on gender bending, with Oscar being a young woman who comes from French nobility that plays the male role of being a knight. She was raised from childbirth to be a man, even if her physical body says otherwise. It has a powerful, emotional storyline that is still unmatched in the world of anime and manga.
I had the pleasure of reading a Japanese re-release of the Rose of Versailles manga, and I have to say that it is an absolute masterpiece. The manga stands tall as one of the greatest shojo manga ever made, bar none. The USA release of this masterpiece has me very excited. If you can get past the "old school" art, you will get to experience of the best stories ever put on paper.
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